Salmon Belly and Adobong Kangkong

Monday Night
I saw Austin's Lola at the grocery store and she told me how she liked fried salmon belly as we passed the fish area. This gave me the idea to cook salmon belly for that night. I decided to pair it with Adobong Kangkong because I loved eating kangkong in the Philippines the last time I was there.

I don't think I'll ever cook salmon belly again because I had to scale the thin pieces of salmon which was horrible and difficult to do. The fish was hard to grip because it was slimy as I scaled each piece. I stunk and had to shower before bed. However, my sister complimented me by saying that the my cooking that night smelled and tasted like my Lola's own cooking. The best compliment I can get when it comes to Filipino cooking is if they say it tasted like Lola Liling's. I sauteed and cooked the salmon belly in garlic,soy sauce, and onion rings.

However, I'll cook adobong kangkong again because that one wasn't too hard to prepare and cook. I cooked like how I would with chicken adobo, without the chicken of course. I wilted the kangkong in the same mixture as chicken adobo (vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and sugar).

Chicken Adobo and Green Beans over Rice

Sunday Dinner
So you may have noticed that I eat a lot of adobo. I eat it a lot because I love it and buy the value pack of chicken thighs. I only use 1/3 of the chicken thighs when I cook so I had to figure out how to cook the rest of the chicken for the rest of the week. One easy way is to marinate the chicken thighs in Filipino Adobo marinade, which I usually do.

A Jack in the Box Mango Shake Before Gardening

Sunday Afternoon

In between buying herbs and tomatoes to plant that afternoon, we stopped by Jack in the Box for a quick snack. I had the mango shake which surprisingly did not upset my stomach because I am lactose and I feared that like any shake, it has milk which I cannot have. However, I greatly enjoyed it without being upset in the stomach.

A Mexican Breakfast Burrito by Chef Austin

Sunday Breakfast


I had leftover bacon from the Feijoada, leftover salsa, leftover Feijoada, leftover wheat soft taco from Mexican night, and eggs. So, Austin made a Mexican inspired breakfast. I paired this breakfast with Mexican hot chocolate which I drank from my SU mug! I love and miss SU that morning made me think of my college days.

As usual, Austin's cooking was delicious!

Chicken KatusDon, Salmon Sushi Roll, Miso Soup, and Salad

Saturday Night
We tried a new Japanese restaurant on Cap Hill, by the Harvard Exit Theatre and we liked the food very much. This is a pricier place but thank goodness we enjoyed the food along with a large bottle of warm sake.

Austin got the tempura robata(dinner) which he shared with me. He didn't like the tempura eggplant which he gave to me. I love eggplant, especially Chinese eggplant, so I happily munched on this tempura.

McD's Chicken Nuggets Snack before Shrek 4

May 22, 2010

I LOVE LOVE LOVE McD's chicken nuggets. For a snack before watching Shrek 4 Forever After, we stopped at McD's. I only started liking these chicken nuggets after I dipped one of them in what I call the Asian sauce. Of course, it's called sweet and sour sauce but I always refer to it as the Asian sauce and the McD staff have to interpret what I said to them. We shared the Shrek special of 20 piece nuggets. I think I ate 10 but who knows because we were sharing the box together. I almost forgot to take a picture and only remembered to do it after there were only 3 left!

This was a good Shrek movie, on par with Shrek 1 and 2. Shrek 3 was awful. Justin Timberlake who I like very much ruined that movie.

A Leftover Breakfast of Longanisa Linguini

May 22, 2010

For me, pasta dishes taste better the next day and this theory proved true the next day because the Longanisa Linguini did not lose its delicious taste.

Longanisa Linguini

May 21, 2010

This is another example of dinner that is made of whatever is left in my refrigerator and pantry. I had frozen Fou Lee longanisa, ragu chunky mushroom sauce, fresh parsley, fresh cilantro, linguini pasta, canned corn, and fresh tomatoes that I didn't get to use for the Feijoada dinner. So I put all of those together along with garlic and onions. I came up with a delicious Friday dinner. If you make this, plan on using a mouthwash afterwards because if you burp, your breath will smell like longanisa. Other people don't usually enjoy smelling this meaty linguini.

Feijoada or Frijoles Negros

My first ever Feijoada (Brazilian) or Frijoles Negros (Cuban). I made a Filipino dish similar to this but I used fish sauce in that one instead.

Another Vietnamese Roll

I was craving Vietnamese spring rolls and I was excited to eat this one until I took the first bite and noticed that it wasn't that good.

A Mexican Breakfast

Today, the fig flavored Greek Gods yogurt didn't agree with my taste buds so I only ate half of it. Austin was very nice and gave me his banana for breakfast instead of taking it to work to eat. After eating the banana, I was still hungry so I ate chips and salsa. The salsa was made of leftover enchilada filling and southwest salsa.

Chicken Pad Thai

This is my version of chicken pad thai. My mom came over so I had dinner with her, Austin, and Virni. She said she actually liked it and asked for seconds. She didn't think I could cook!

Stomach Flu Lunch

I wasn't feeling good but actually, top ramen, oriental flavor, hit the spot, along with Starbuck's Cafe mocha.

Ole! A "Mexican" Dinner for Three

This was an enchilada topped with avocado, my filling, and southwest salsa.

Another Amazing Soup

I love creating different soups and this one was just as good as the other soups. Austin and I made this soup together and his co-worker commented that it looked professional. We'll I guess we're professional soup chefs!

Sharing a Panda Express Snack with Austin

5/16/2010

Because I didn't finish the salmon breakfast, I was really hungry by the middle of the afternoon. Thus, we stopped at Panda Express and as always, typical for unhealthy foods, we had a very tasty snack. Orange chicken is delicious.

A Fishy Leftover Breakfast

A Sushi Dinner with Arnie and Travis

5/15/2010

Courtesy of Sushi Maki, I ordered Combo 1 which consisted of california roll, spicy tuna roll, and miso soup. I love Sushi Maki! Travis ordered the Mexican roll which was actually really good too.

Three Sisters Sandwich Shop: A Zorba Sandwich

Before eating a lot of cheese at the Cheese Festival, Austin and I had lunch at Three Sisters Sandwich shop in Post-Alley at Pike Place Market. I ordered the Zorba sandwich and it was made of eggplant, feta, tomatoes, and their special sandwich spread. The bread was foccacia and it came with their italian salad. Awesomely tasty! I washed down each bite with a can of Hansen's.

A King Salmon Fishy Friday Night Dinner with Austin

Austin and I went to Pike Place Market after work hours to buy dinner. He bought 2 King Salmon steaks, green beans, dill, and white corn. Austin mixed mayonnaise, minced dill, and minced parsley together and covered one side of the salmon steaks with the mixture. He baked the salmon steaks in a 350 degrees oven for 10 minutes.

It was a very awesome dinner and we had a lot of leftovers left!

Tofu and Fish Balls Mikisoba

5/13/2010

I was on a tofu and noodles kick last week so I made Mikisoba with fish balls and fried tofu. It had the regular veggies (carrots, celery, mushrooms, and onions) but I added a version of bok-choy to it. It was really good but Austin didn't like the fish balls so much. He preferred more meat in his mikisoba.

Just in case I forget, I usually eat for lunch what I had the night before.

Fig Flavored Greek Gods Yogurt for Breakfast

It is an interesting taste but not so bad with granola and raspberries. I did like the fact that I got some Vitamin A and Iron from eating this yogurt. I actually love Greek Gods yogurt...but not its price. $1.50 to $2 is expensive.

Filipino Chicken Adobo with Fresh Roma Tomatoes and White Corn

5/12/2010

Dinner time, Filipino style. Got adobo?

Fage Greek Yogurt with Raspberries and Granola

Due to my busier schedule, I will be posting just the photos and maybe a few comments instead of a paragraph.

5/12/2010


Another Greek yogurt breakfast with granola except this time, it's a new brand called Fage and the granola I added to my yogurt had raspberries in it.

Beef and Tofu Yakisoba

I love yakisoba so I made up a new version of this dish tonight. I sauteed the garlic and onions in olive oil. Then I added chopped carrots, celery, tofu, and oyster sauce. I set this aside and cooked a pound of ground beef in the wok. After the beef was cooked, I added the vegetable mixture and mixed them well. Then I set them aside in a bowl and poured olive oil into the wok. I added the yakisoba and cooked it with 1/4 cup of water. Please separate the noodles so that when you toss in the vegetables, it will be easier for you to toss. Then, I seasoned the noodles with dash of teriyaki marinade, Calamansi soy sauce, and two teaspoons of oyster sauce. Once the noodles were coated with the sauces, I added the mixture and mixed the whole thing well. Cook the whole thing for a few minutes so that the flavors mix together.

Vegetarian Pasta for Dinner

For breakfast yesterday, I had yogurt, a new kind of yogurt called Fage, which was on sale. The yogurt was topped with the same raspberry granola that I ate last week.

I had Kuya Joni's pansit for lunch along with roasted chicken from the Mom's Day party. I made sure to hide some of Kuya's pansit before everyone finished them off at the party on Sunday.

Then for dinner, after realizing that I had to meat to cook with, I decided to make a vegetarian pasta dish. First, I sauteed garlic in olive oil. When the garlic was brown, I added red kidney beans and olives. Then, I added a jar of Safeway Sundried Tomatoes and Olives spaghetti sauce. I seasoned the sauce with salt, pepper, oregano, and basil. I tossed it with the wheat angel hair pasta.

A Filipino Mom's Day Dinner

This year, my mom's side of the family had a combined Mother's Day party to celebrate the moms. Everybody brought something to the dinner. I brought what I made for a snack on Wednesday before the Cinco de Mayo dinner but I overcooked the bread and the bread was too hard. Surprisingly, only a few were left, despite the very tough bread that they had to eat.

My Tita Baby made the cabbage roll filled with beef and cooked in tomato sauce. Tito Nonong made the deliciously tangy grilled chicken. Kuya Joni made his version of pansit which was very good. Lastly, I took the hard boiled egg from my mom's version of pansit because I love hard boiled eggs on my pansit.

Austin and Val's Homemade Breakfast for their Mom

The boys made eggs with tomatoes, keilbasa sausages, toast, and sauteed red, yellow, and green bell peppers, for their mom on Mom's Day. Thankfully, I was present during this time because the breakfast was really good. My man knows how to cook.

Salad and Homemade Pizza for Dinner

Salad made of greens, dried cranberry, feta, vinaigrette, carrots, red cabbage, and almonds.

Pizza made with Boboli crust, roasted green, red, and yellow bell peppers, roasted onions, tomato sauce, mushrooms, sausages cooked in the EGG, chicken cooked in the EGG, fresh mozzarella, Italian seasoning, and fresh tomatoes. The whole pizza was cooked in the EGG.

 To explain, the EGG is Tom's smoker which cooks everything better than a grill. He is very proud of his EGG.

I had two Mexican beers during the night, a Sol and a Tecate.

Lastly, I had strawberries over a slice of pound cake and topped with whipped cream since I couldn't have the vanilla ice cream that supposed to go with this.

It was an awesome birthday dinner for Toni.

Snacking on McDonald's Before Dinner

Apparently, I am a snacker especially before dinner. I noticed that I am like this after going through my blog. Snacking is good but only if I snack on healthy foods. Goldilocks and other sweets aren't healthy so I will try not to snack on those anymore.

For Toni's birthday, we created our own pizzas. We brought our own mozzarella cheese for me since I can only have certain dairy products. We knew that dinner usually didn't start on time and because we didn't want to be cranky waiting for the food to be ready, Austin got us chicken nuggets to tide us over until the actual dinner. I love the McDonald's chicken nuggets with the Asian sauce, also known as sweet and sour sauce. I just like to call it Asian sauce.

The Last of My Goldilocks

It was a little dry by Saturday afternoon but it was still tasty.

French Chicken and Leeks Leftover Lunch

After playing tennis for 45 minutes in the morning, we had our leftovers for lunch. We would've played longer but a group came and we left earlier than expected. I was really annoyed by this and wish there were more tennis courts available. Too many of my neighbors are playing tennis. In south Seattle, there were usually open tennis courts but in this neighborhood, a lot of the people apparently play this game.

Chicken and Leeks, French Style

On Friday, Austin and I made up our own French dish, using Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay with the chicken and leeks. I think anything with white wine is French so I call this dish a French inspired dish.

First, we browned the chicken thighs until they were cooked inside. Then, we sauteed the leeks, garlic, tomatoes, fresh parsley, fresh white corn, and mushrooms in butter, olive oil, chicken stock, and white wine. When doing this recipe, make sure that you prepare the leeks properly because they're dirt magnets and make sure that the leeks are cooked through. Once the leeks were cooked, we added the browned chicken and cooked the whole thing for 10 minutes. We seasoned it with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. If the dish is saucy, add flour to thicken the sauce. Then, it was served on angel hair pasta.

Delicious!

Mango Chicken Adobo

I experimented with using my mango jam instead of sugar to make adobo. So I used the same ingredients to make adobo but instead of sugar, I substituted mango jam. I added red potatoes because Austin likes potatoes in his adobo and I like red potatoes for their sweetness. I sauteed carrots in olive oil and seasoned them with salt and pepper to accompany the adobo and rice. All in all, this was a very tasty and healthy dinner.

Snacking on Goldilocks before Dinner

Vietnamese Spring Rolls from Saigon Deli for Lunch

On the way to my volunteering job, I passed by Chinatown so I thought that I should get lunch there. I actually stopped in Little Saigon instead of Chinatown because I wanted more rice spring rolls. I bought the ones below and I actually didn't know all of the ingredients in the rolls. However, the rolls were really good. I suspect that the yellow part were made of eggs.

I also got Naked Juice from Starbucks because I thought that it would help me with my immune system. I am trying to eat healthy, immune-boosting foods since I still have the same cold.

Chobani Greek Yogurt for Breakfast Everyday Last Week

Greek yogurts are more expensive, averaging about $2 each container. The Greek Gods yogurts was not on sale last week so I tried a new brand which was on sale called Chobani. I ate different flavors of this yogurt everyday last week. I also liked this one, especially the fruit at the bottom of the container. I added granola to the yogurt and I liked how tangy taste of the raspberry mixing with the fruit's sweetness.

Cinco De Mayo on Capitol Hill

We had dinner with Arnie and the gang at La Puerta. I saw the same old lady who used to wait on us when La Puerta used to be closer to SU and it was Arnie, Amanda, and I's hang out.

I had the special on the menu but I don't remember what it was called. It was stewed pork in special sauce. The meal came with the traditional sides. The food was okay but the company was great. I had sangria and too many chips before the meal. I ate way too much and haven't stuffed myself in this way for almost a week.

Too many chips to count!

Healthy Snack Before Cinco De Mayo Dinner with the Gays

After school today, I walked over to the Farmer's Market next door and purchased a long sesame baguette, leeks, and raspberry cider for Austin's Mom's Mom's Day present. For Mom's day, I got my mom marigolds for planting, potting soil, and actually weeded and mulched her garden in the front of the house. Mommy had an expensive and trying present from me this year because I hurt my back weeding and mulching.

On the way home, I passed by MacPherson's Produce and bought a few veggies, including parsley for $.39!I wanted to taste the sesame baguette so I made up a quick snack before dinner tonight. I chopped up some parsley and added olive oil, chopped olives (leftover from Monday night's chicken cacciatori recipe), crumbled feta (leftover from pizza night) to it. I mixed this in a bowl and used it as a topping on the baguette slices. I sliced the baguettes and dipped them in this mixture: olive oil, garlic powder, and the seeds that came off the bread when I sliced the bread. I only dipped one side of the bread into the olive oil mixture and then toasted the bread slices in the toaster oven until they were brown.

A Quick Vietnamese Lunch

I knew that I wouldn't have enough time to eat before 11:55 am, which is when lunch is over at the elementary school and when I get to teach the third graders math. So, I stopped at Tammy's Bakery in MLK for four rice spring rolls. Each roll cost $1 but after eating 3, I was full and gave the last one to Austin, who finally finished his dentist appointment. I actually arrived 15 minutes before I had to teach, so that was good.

The rolls were yummy and filling. Two of the rolls were filled with chinese sausage and sunny side up egg and the other two had grilled pork skin. Of course, the rolls were also filled with pickled carrots and radish, and mint. I prefered the former to the latter but both were awesome.

After Dinner Carrot Cake

After eating the lemongrass and sage chicken for dinner, I shared a huge QFC slice of carrot cake with Austin and Virni. Almost half of this cake is still left because the cake was very thick.

Lemongrass and Sage Chicken

Because I still have more sage left, I stuffed sage under each chicken thigh's skin while the chicken thighs were marinated in my own special sauce. It consisted of soy sauce, sugar, spring roll chili sauce, teriyaki marinade, lemongrass, mustard, pepper, and lime juice. I stewed the stuffed chicken thighs in the marinade after adding enough water in the stewing pot to cover the chicken. Once the chicken thighs were cooked, I removed and set them aside. Then, I added enough flour to the pot to thicken the sauce.

For the accompanying vegetable, I cut carrots into strips and sauteed them in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Rice was the accompanying carb.

Goldilocks for a Snack Before Dinner

Here is a slice of the mocha roll from Goldilocks that I bought in Vancouver, BC. I couldn't wait and wanted to eat something while I was making up dinner. I love to be creative in the kitchen but I can only do this if I'm not hungry and there's music in the background.

Bo's Version of Chicken Cacciatori with Sage and Olives

For dinner Monday night, I made chicken cacciatori with olives and sage. I got this recipe from Austin's mom and I am not sure if that is the correct name. She doesn't usually use sage but because I still have leftover sage from last week, I decided to use it for this dish since sage goes well with chicken.

The ingredients I used were: garlic, onion, carrots, olives, sage, tomato sauce, and chicken. Usually, I use parsley but since I didn't have that, I omitted it. You stew the whole thing together after sauteing the garlic first until its light brown.

This was served was rice and it was a good, warm, and fulfilling homemade food.

Soup of the Day: A Concoction of What Is In My Fridge

As the title said, the soup was a concoction of what I had in my fridge. Adding fiber to my diet because I'm on a health kick, I added a can of garbanzo beans. The soup had carrots, onions, garlic, cilantro, ginger, celery, marjoram, italian sausage, salt, pepper, and chicken broth.